The Mayor and the Gamemaker
by Allison Cloud
Summary: An unlikely alliance forms between two armchair revolutionaries born on opposite sides of Panem. Mayor Undersee and Plutarch Heavensbee at college, before the Quarter Quell. One-shot, platonic. Rated T because of things that you sometimes find in boys' dormitories.


**Author's note: **

The Hunger Games characters and universe belong to the wonderful Suzanne Collins.

This is a speculative fic on Mayor Undersee's ties to the rebellion, a quarter of a century before Katniss and Peeta's Games. I came up with it because "Undersee" and "Heavensbee" are such similar names that I developed a theory that the characters themselves were pretty similar – people in (relative) power who subverted Snow's regime in their own ways.

Mayor Undersee's first name, Henry, comes from **Medea Smyke**. I love the way she portrayed him in _An Extra Dividend_, which is my absolute favorite fic in the world and a must-read for all Gadge fans. MADGE IS ALIVE, ALIVE I TELL YOU!

Opening quote is (obviously) from George Orwell, whose seminal works still set the bar for dystopian fiction.

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_He had committed – would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper – the essential crime that contains all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later..._

_- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four_

"Dean Snow is here!"

A redheaded sophomore from District 3 appeared in the laundry room doorway long enough to shout a warning to its lone occupant before taking off again at high speed.

Heart pounding, Henry Undersee abandoned his laundry and joined the throng of students retreating further into the dormitory. The dean of Panem Civil Service College had never once visited the residence halls. Someone was in deep trouble, and the freshman from District 12 had an awful feeling that it was him.

The crowd surged up a flight of stairs and Henry found himself squeezed in next to Paylor, another freshman and a District 8 native. "What's going on?" Henry asked, trying not to let the panic creep into his voice.

"Books from before the Dark Days," Paylor whispered. "In a student's room. Roommate ratted him out."

Henry felt sick to his stomach, thinking of the treasonous books he'd stashed in his dorm room. His fears were confirmed when the crowd stopped at Suite 2B, where Peacekeepers were peering into vents, prying up the floorboards, and ripping open his mattress. Dean Coriolanus Snow was standing with Henry's Capitol-born roommates – including that cretin, Plutarch Heavensbee, who had once walked in on Henry while he was re-reading _Brave New World_.

"Ah yes, Mister Undersee," Dean Snow said smoothly. "We were just waiting for you."

The dean lifted his chin and addressed the crowd. "My office received photographic evidence of treasonous material found in this very room. Now, I had hoped to make this a quiet little fact-finding mission, alas... Perhaps it is just as well. We must make an example. We cannot let the future leaders of Panem be infiltrated by traitors."

It was his own fault. Henry knew he should have left the books back home instead of smuggling them in his tattered, hand-me-down suitcase at the beginning of the semester. Henry started mentally apologizing to everyone back home in Twelve. His father, the mayor's secretary. His grandmother, who had grown up in poverty in the Seam.

His girlfriend, Maysilee Donner. They had discovered the books together one day in the basement of the library where he was working. The adrenaline rush had fueled their first kiss.

Henry smiled at the memory, earning him a reproachful look from Snow in the process. His father might take the credit, but Maysilee was the one who convinced him to apply for a scholarship at PCSC. Maysilee was sixteen, blonde, beautiful; not to mention fairly wealthy by District 12 standards. Her rebellious streak was tempered by an unflagging idealism; she believed that people on the inside could change the system.

Which was what Henry wanted to do. That is, if he wasn't executed or turned into an Avox on the spot today.

"All right, if Mister Undersee is done smirking," Snow said haughtily. A Peacekeeper handed him a stack of Henry's books. _Nineteen Eighty-Four. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Brave New World. _A smile of satisfaction slowly spread across the dean's face.

Snow held up _V For Vendetta_. "Why, this particular tome is practically a how-to manual on terrorism!" He opened randomly it for the crowd to see.

The low buzz of murmured conversation turned into stunned silence.

Unbeknownst to the dean, as the book was facing outwards, he was showing the students a very detailed drawing of a naked woman doing unspeakable things to a banana.

It was Horatio Tull, another roommate of Henry's, who dared to speak first. "He must've hidden the real ones!" he cried. "I swear I saw them!"

Snow looked at the book, saw the offending illustration, and rounded on Henry with eyes blazing. "What is the meaning of this?"

Henry held up his hands, speechless.

"If I may explain, Dean," Plutarch piped up. "I was trying to speak earlier but nobody was... I mean, I failed to get your attention, Sir."

Snow was livid. "Please do explain, Mister Heavensbee."

"This was meant as a test of Undersee's loyalty to the Capitol. You see, Sir, I don't trust any trib – I mean, any scholar from the districts much, so I put treasonous-looking titles on book jackets to see if he would open them," Plutarch said. "I didn't count on Horatio finding them and running to your office, Sir."

Snow narrowed his eyes. "I see. And how did you know what titles to put on these so-called fake covers?"

"Sir, the history books describe the rebels as being inspired by certain authors," Plutarch said without skipping a beat. "I just looked up the names of the authors and found the titles of famous books they had written. After that it was pretty easy to make professional-looking covers. I even aged them artificially," he added proudly. "I'm a bit of a designer, if I do say so myself."

"And you believed that Mister Undersee would recognize those titles? To most people, those titles are meaningless. What if he had opened the books out of idle curiosity, not knowing they were treasonous?"

"On the other hand, Sir, if the titles sounded too treasonous, he would know immediately that it was a trap."

Snow was silent for a moment. "And the pornography?"

Plutarch turned beet red. "Ah, well, those are mine, Sir. A bit of a prank to go along with the trap, Sir."

The dean frowned. "Well, there is no rule against pornography in the dormitories, strictly speaking. But your parents will be informed of this... incident." He turned to Horatio. "As for you, Mister Tull, please come with me."

Peacekeepers grabbed Horatio's shoulders and shoved him out of the room. The crowd started to disperse and their fourth roommate left, chuckling to himself.

Plutarch turned on his TV. "Well, that's that. Want to play _Hunger Games III: Muttation Madness_?" he asked.

Henry chose to ignore his roommate's tactless offer. "What just happened?" he demanded shakily.

Plutarch shrugged, waving his arms in front of the TV to select a girl from District 4 as his character. "One of the floorboards was gone when I came home today. Your books were down there. I knew they were yours from that one time I caught you. Anyway, I wasn't going to leave them out in the open like that, but I couldn't just hide them – if someone had already seen them and they went missing, that would look even more suspicious. So I put my books in there and swapped the book jackets. Pretty smart of me, eh? Oh, and your books are in my fencing bag."

Henry wrinkled his nose; he knew for a fact that Plutarch's fencing gear was ancient and had never been washed. Nobody would willingly go near them. "Um, thanks. But... why are you helping me?"

"I have the same books back home," he replied nonchalantly, keeping his eyes on the screen.

"You what?" Henry sputtered.

"_I didn't put you in a prison; I just showed you the bars_," Plutarch quoted, lunging forward to deal a virtual death blow to a hapless tribute in his video game. "Proof enough for you? Difference is, I wasn't dumb enough to bring them to college. So I suggest you either burn yours, or bring them back home the first chance you get and leave them there."

"But your parents work for the President!"

"Not to mention members of a secret resistance." Plutarch turned to Henry and saluted him crisply. "Panem prevails."

~FIN~

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**Author's postscript:**

The Paylor character here is supposed to be the older brother of Commander/President Paylor, whom Katniss estimates to be in her thirties in _Mockingjay_.

_The Mayor and the Gamemaker_ is meant to be a one-shot and a companion to my upcoming fic which focuses mainly on the Donner twins and the soon-to-be Mrs. Everdeen.

To be clear, Dean Snow will become president of Panem one day like in the books, and the Hunger Games still exist. The video game Plutarch was playing is just the Capitol's way of milking the real Games for all they were worth (in the same way that there are video games for real sports in our universe). In fact, this was set immediately before Maysilee and Haymitch were Reaped.

In my universe, Maysilee and Mayor Undersee were together. There is a method to this madness, I promise. Among other things, Mayor Undersee will always suspect that Maysilee was Reaped to punish him for the treasonous books, even if he was never proven guilty.

There will be some Haysilee in there, too. *wink*

I hope you liked this story. But even if you didn't, please review!


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